Kyler Murray and the Importance of Game Film

Watching game film should be an important part of any quarterback’s preparation, including Kyler Murray.

Well, I can definitely say that interesting news has dropped about the addendum in Kyler Murray’s contract that is tied with his guaranteed money.  By now it’s made its rounds around the sports world and social media with people taking both sides of the argument.  Either the news is concerning or it’s not a big deal at all it is troublesome news that initially in Kyler’s pre-draft scouting report many scouts and GMs had concerns about Kyler’s work ethic and game prep.  Of course, there was the infamous New York Times article where Kyler told the times that he’s not gonna kill himself watching game film.

If anyone knows me I’m a film junkie, I can’t wait for the game film to be released every week as promised 24-48 hours later.  The film doesn’t lie and usually can answer the pictures that have been painted and truly reveal what happens.  Is a corner holding his own, is the Linebacker doing his job, was the offensive linemen at fault for the sack, or was the quarterback holding the ball too long,  are the receivers getting open?  Game film is also important to reveal what opponents due in situations whether by formation, time or down and distance.

Anyways I’m rambling on again but just to clarify it is an important job as a quarterback and the leader of this team to take study sessions seriously.  Of course, we probably have the most Gen-Z quarterback who is from my understanding is part of FaZe clan.  It’s quite possible that in today’s generation film study is putting in a game of Madden in your Playstation 5 or Xbox series X and literally trying to stimulate the game, in fact, that’s how a lot of casual fans know what a play is both in offense and defense.  But Madden is a disservice to the name because we all know by now what a terrible simulator it is.

Wow, that’s quite a jump between subjects but the best quarterbacks in the league are talented physically but also the smartest on the field.  Tom Brady and Peyton Manning come to mind naturally.  No one ever questioned the work ethic and the heart when it came to both quarterbacks.  We actually had a Quarterback in our own division that was a film junkie in Russell Wilson.  Unfortunately for Kyler Murray, this division has had Russ in it for the last decade so every team (including the Cardinals) has had practice defending a shorter Quarterback that can scramble with a big arm.  So because of that Russ had to work meticulously to attack defenses where they are weaker.  Back in 2020 in that crazy back and forth game where the Cardinals came out victorious against the Seahawks on national television, Vance Joseph was accredited with confusing Russ with 5 stand-up LB’s taking the place of hand on the ground DT’s.  Those looks disguised the blitz dropping some LB’s into zones and blitzing anyone at any given time it was by far Vance Joseph’s greatest confusion act to this day, on national television against the number one seeded Seahawks.  You can check out the mastery of that in the video below.

Once again Marcos what does this matter? Take a look at the All-22 clips below.

Notice Vance tried confusing Russ again and each time Russ was able to beat it either by knowing where to attack and start improvising. Only one time did I find where the Cardinals forced an incompletion.

Overall, I think this just helps Kyler Murray if it is true he doesn’t do as much film study. As of the writing of this article, Kyler has released a statement and the Cardinals removed the addendum altogether. Regardless, Kyler Murray will have to study defenses more closely and hopefully he can pick apart game plans.

Either way class is in session.